Archive for the 'Nick Lowe' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

How fitting that Irish teenagers the Strypes would make their first splash in America at roughly the same time the British Invasion took the nation by storm 50 years ago. And how appropriate that what may be the band’s biggest breakout moment stateside – blasting through the single “What a Shame” fast and furious last week on Late Night with David Letterman – took place in the same spot where the younger Stones, Animals and more forebears left lastingly deep impacts in the mid-’60s on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Combined with the U.S. release last month of their debut disc, Snapshot, and an invigorating finish to their first extensive North American tour Tuesday night at El Rey Theatre, these lads, none old enough to drink here, have arrived bearing the same timely reminder that disciples from Jack White to Jet delivered when they caught fire a decade ago. The restated principle: frenzy-inducing rock ’n’ roll never dies, whether homegrown or imported. What elicited ecstasy back then can still thrill now.

Though their popularity grew throughout Britain last year, the Strypes aren’t, of course, a U.K. group; they’re from Cavan, near the Northern Ireland divide. That’s where, throughout their still-developing youth, they devoured blues and rock classics more than literature or math, forming a band as a means of unabashedly reviving a past handed down from their parents. It would be a goof or a lark if they didn't have such slavishly infectious intensity, a strange authenticity that almost immediately attracted them a devoted following, rapidly acquired at rip-it-up shows like this week’s startling return to L.A. (They already tore up the Troubadour in January.)

They are remarkably fresh-faced: affable and already sharp-skilled guitarist Josh McClorey is the oldest at 18 and a half; vocalist Ross Farrelly, who broods behind shades like Liam Gallagher remodeled into a young Eric Burdon, is but 16. Most of them have been practicing in drummer Evan Walsh’s bedroom since they were 9, studying Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley licks and learning obscurities (to Americans, that is) from their fave pub-rockers, Dr. Feelgood. Preternaturally, they have developed into a fiercely aggressive, Savile Row replica of the first-album Stones at their speediest, harmonica howls and all. Not since the Hives has pure rock ’n’ roll come so accelerated. Alvin Lee would be proud.

In case you weren't aware -- I wasn't until I caught up with him last week -- Donavon Frankenreiter no longer lives in Orange County.

He hasn't, actually, since 2007, a year before his last album came out. But at least when Pass It Around surfaced he and his wife Petra still had a verdant, tucked-away sanctuary just off Laguna Canyon Road. They just weren't there very much.

“We were spending way more time here,” Donavon explains, “and the kids started going to school here. It's heaven on Earth for me and my family.”

He's hardly the first person to think so of Hawaii -- the beaches of Kauai, to be exact. That's where this permanently laid-back surfer-singer-songwriter sat while we killed the better part of an hour over the phone.

February 17th, 2010, 2:14 pm by KELLI SKYE FADROSKI, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

It's been a productive month for local rock act Regrets & Brunettes, as the Fullerton-based quartet has been hard at work rehearsing and changing up its set week after week during a Thursday-night residency at the Gypsy Lounge in Lake Forest.

Vocalist and guitarist Richard Bivens, bassist Robert Pavlovich, drummer Dylan Kato and guitarist Anthony Chu have kept these gigs fresh by playing variations of songs from their debut, At Night You Love Me, as well as learning a new cover for each show.

“We did (Nick Lowe's) ‘Cruel to be Kind' last night,” Bivens said during a phone chat after the group's first residency show. “So far, it's been good. The Gypsy Lounge has a really cool vibe. We love the acoustics there and they really know how to take care of bands.”

At Night You Love Me only arrived in December, yet Bivens says the band is already starting to long for newer material. The album took nearly a year and half to finish, partially due to Chu's enrollment in medical school, Bivens explains, though he adds the group didn't really mind the relaxed approach to recording.

“We're really happy with the record,” he says, “but at the same time we've been playing these songs for a while now. It's fun for the audience because they haven't heard them, but to be honest we're a little tired of a few songs. It's been like a year since I've really bore down and started writing.” That said, a new one, “Facts & Figures,” was penned in time for the residency.

L.A. claimed them just as fast as the four Kids wanted to leave, but what has become one of Southern California's leading indie-rock outfits –- see why Jan. 22 at the Wiltern, three days after the arrival of a new EP, Behave Yourself –- began in downtown Fullerton and was only beginning to bust out of O.C. with its soul-shaking sound by the time this debut caught fire. Loyalty to Loyalty, two years later, wasn't as good, even if it sold much better, but they've got sustained buzz at this point. Expect big things from them this year.

40. The Shys, You'll Never Understand This Band the Way That I Do (2008) From the southern edge of the county –- San Clemente, to be specific –- emerged our very own Hives, rockin' the garages of suburbia with Stones-on-steroids swagger. At least that's how these guys came off on their 2006 debut, Astoria. Two years later, they cut out the shtick and got serious about developing their sound without fully slicing out its '70s underbelly. The result is a varied beauty that spans from Mott the Hoople holler to David Lowery at a booze-soaked best to the sort of winsome indie-pop and baroque, piano-driven nuggets that could make Cold War Kids and Delta Spirit envious. Like Wilco growing and experimenting from A.M. to Being There, they're only beginning to figure out what really works.

39. Dusty Rhodes and the River Band, First You Live (2007)

Kinsler sent in a clever comparison about this Fullerton bunch -– if Yes and the Band teamed up and enlisted Gram Parsons –- and suggested last May's Palace and Stage make the list. It's a winner, too, and certainly more cohesive, but I get a kick out of its predecessor's jumbled, off-kilter looseness, ranging from foot-stompin' Americana to Elton John circa '73, Jason Falkner power-pop to Dead Milkmen deadpan. Another local cult favorite in the making, despite the backing of SideOneDummy Records (home of Flogging Molly and Gogol Bordello) ... or are the seeds of something more just beginning to take root after three albums? Still hard to say.

Come to think of it, if you're into CPR&K – which is to say you're a fan of their respective bands: Saves the Day, the Get Up Kids and/or the New Amsterdams, Bayside and Thrice –- there's a better than average chance you actually haven't heard of CSN&Y.

Maybe your parents (or grandparents) once played “Teach Your Children” on a cross-country drive, or talked about watching Woodstock. But I suspect if you were among the packed crowd Thursday night at the Troubadour in West Hollywood to see CPR&K perform under their winking moniker Where's the Band? –- or if you've nabbed tickets to see replays tonight in San Diego and Saturday night at the larger House of Blues at Downtown Disney –- more than half of the people around you wouldn't be able to attach first names to CSN&Y in a Final Jeopardy challenge during College Week.

I make the comparison, however, because in their modest way CPR&K are just as much leading figures of a generational scene -– the emo-fueled, indie-driven Warped/Bamboozle movement –- as CSN&Y were for their era. And also because CPR&K have hit upon a simple but effective presentation that I wish those grizzled dinosaurs would adopt for their next tour.